Waking up this morning and putting on the TV to see the news, instead I saw on BBC Breakfast a 30 minute piece on the role of a teenage girl in 1932 in helping her father do the maths to establish that the Spitfire needed eight .303 guns to deliver a sufficient weight of shot.
That sentence contains the total import of the 30 minute film. In spreading it out over half an hour, the BBC managed to repeat slight variations on that sentence over forty times, padded out with numerous shots of spitfires, Battle of Britain reminiscences and the exhibition of the kitchen table where the maths was done.
I am very glad the Battle of Britain was won. I admire the heroism of those who fought. My mother never forgot her only brother, an RAF navigator who was shot down and died aged nineteen. I am not mindless of the stakes or the sacrifice. But I am old, and the war was over more than a decade before I was born. It is as chronologically distant from a child born today as Victoria becoming Empress of India was from me. I have repeatedly been tempted to write about the WW2 obsession in the media and the English political psyche, but have refrained from not wishing to offend those with whose emotional ties I sympathise. But this is becoming an unhealthy obsession with a “glorious past”.
The BBC’s piece today actually finished with a Churchill speech, with spitfires flying and with Elgar. It was like a parody. The recent focus on Churchill’s vicious racism might as well not have happened. It really is going too far, and it links in to a current day militarism which was initially cultivated by New Labour and Blair’s obsession with neo-imperialist wars abroad.
You have a war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. We have had “anniversary” events that mark the 70th, 75th and now 80th anniversary with the result we have a full 16 years during which not a day passes that is not a “major anniversary” of an event in WW2, on which peg the BBC can hang more “Britain’s Greatness” nostalgia. Very plainly this all meshes with Brexit, with the nostalgia for Britain’s world-bestriding role exuded continually by Johnson and Gove, and with the new aggression of Unionism. It gets less and less subtle – Stalin’s propagandists might have blenched at today’s BBC state propaganda piece. The girl who did the maths deserved her recognition. But not like this.
In the real world, the UK has just resumed arms sales to Saudi Arabia to massacre the children of Yemen and support the jihadist terrorist fanatics of Idlib.
I am going to keep this page permanently open for comments, and hopefully bookmarked on the right hand side, so you can record future examples of BBC WW2 Porn as they occur, or indeed other examples of gratuitous official militarism.
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God Craig, where to begin? It’s like a poison in this country. I realise that that Samuel Johnson’s quote has been all but put to bed but it really rings true whether he meant it in that way or not. Patriotism really is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
We know Boris is a scoundrel we know he employs scoundrels and we know the the BBC is made up of sycophantic scoundrels, so I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised to discover that WW2 is their perfect subject for numbing the the public.
Johnson used the threat of hitler to scare senior citizens into voting for brexit. People of my Mothers generation seem not to be able to distinguish between ‘winning’ WW2 and voting to leave the EU, they all seem absolutely convinced that the EU is really nazi Germany and that Nazi germany is somehow Stalinist and socialist.
What can you do with such a bad understanding of history?
You build Brexit on such a bad understanding of history. Just before the deadly referendum, the BBC started its four year long resurrection of WW1, with just the same emphasis on island nation heroism and so on. Even after 100 years, still no attempt to understand the roots of the war, no examination of the entire continental situation, no empathy for the experiences of German (and citizens of other nations) conscripts and civilians. Just a relentless drumming in of the specialness and righteousness of the suffering but valiant English. And then people accuse the BBC of being pro Remain. They one of the main propagandists for Brexit.
“Even after 100 years, still no attempt to understand the roots of the war, no examination of the entire continental situation”
Absolutely correct statement! Was there ever a mentioning of Britain being willing to go to war to defeat potential threats of the empire? The British government has seen the German-Russian conflict in their interest (keeping Russia away from Persia and Afghanistan and keeping Germany interested in a Eastern European expansion.
As you said, Britain wasn’t just the “suffering and valiant ” victim – in 1914 they were very much interested in a military conflict
I don’t think the BBC piece is about glorious Britain beating the Nazis, and thus “Brexit will be great!”.
I think it’s about girls being just as good as boys at STEM (if not even better)!
ie, this is about gender politics, not nationalism.
Stop watching COMbbc; contrast this average TradBBC effort:
Ludovic Kennedy (BBC 1, 1971): ‘The Life and Death of the Scharnhorst‘ – YouTube (50m 39s)
If there is ever a chance to escape the jingoism then we can also have the anniversary of individual battles or the D-day landings, add to this the commemorations of the first world war and its campaigns. Lest we forget? No bloody chance, I’m suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.
I agree – much too much is made of WW2 by current politicians who have never served a day in uniform, let along in war. The US does the same of course. As does Russia. We hark back to the ‘good war’ lest we focus too closely on all the bad wars since.
People killed, injured or traumatised by war suffer just as much whether they were on the good or bad side of course and deserve to be honoured and remembered for their sacrifice.
That said – there is definitely something calculated in all these anniversary celebrations. It is sinister.
Strangely our centrist journalists have no trouble seeing something sinister in the military parades of other countries like Russia. It’s just ours that are above reproach.
“This episode will be available soon” https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000ky7l – but looking at yesterday’s programme:
“Sorry this episode is unavailable” https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000kr6x
Absolutely spot on.
This is the ultimate World War 2 Porn. Using instruments of war and death to celebrate the founding to the NHS Unable to work out the connection .
“A World War Two spitfire has performed a special flypast to mark the 72nd birthday of the NHS. The plane set off from IWM Duxford at 4.20pm and then flew over a number of hospitals in the East of England – including the Luton & Dunstable Hospital, Stevenage’s Lister Hospital and Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge”
Yes, Morgwn. And thanks to our perverted and corrupt MSM, most people seem to be unable to work out the connection between daily calls for charity to support starving and maimed men, woman and children in Yemen and the direct actions of our government and the likes of BAE. Yemen doesn’t need UK charity, it needs the UK Government to pull the plug on this war.
Thank you so much for saying this out loud…
I’m glad you came out with this article first, the “we won the war ” constant propaganda by the UK media is relentless. Harking back to the days of empire is of course Westminsters forte, its as if they know they’re a insignificant military force around the globe now, and like an old washed up hasbeen actor, they constantly reminisce (and the rest of us are force fed it ) of days gone by. It past the embarrassing stage years ago.
“But I am old, and the war was over more than a decade before I was born. It is as chronologically distant from a child born today as Victoria becoming Empress of India was from me.”
I read somewhere that Cleopatra (the well known one of course) was born closer to the invention of the i phone, than she was to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
You hear more about WW2 now than you did when nearly everybody had been in it.
Its easier to peddle sentimental nostalgic nonsense when those who were actually involved are safely out of the way.
Absolutely johnny
The elderly i knew that fought in ww2 never talked about it. Didn’t want to relive the horrors they saw. Who remembered fallen friends on commemorative anniversaries. They certainly didn’t indulge in this jingoistic porn the way the bbc and politicians do. Most would be disgusted by it.
Craig, I completely agree with all you say. The British do love their wars. I think this girl’s story could well be part of a book but a 30 minute segment on BBC is just ridiculous when so many wars are raging round the world that the people of this country don’t know or care about. I read the other day that half the people in the world know nothing about Yemen’s plight and the dreadful situation with their children starving. This is through lying by omission by our media and it’s a sad reflection that people celebrate Britain’s victories when we are told nothing of the horrors of wars all over the world. We need to begin to care for others or humankind is lost.
The fetishism of to military is not only a very working class thing (as the personnel generally on the front line come from working class families) but also a very right wing thing as it lazily Venn’s into authoritarianism, nationalism and the cult of heroism. Unsurprisingly, given the way these dovetail together, the authoritarian right wing establishment ghouls are pushing this narrative into the zeitgeist for all it’s worth as it I inevitably bleeds crossover into right wing thinking being respectful and good. Playschool psy-ops for the hard of thinking which reveals more about establishment attitudes about us grubby plebs than anything else.
Sorry, meant to post this on the main thread. Not got my reading glasses on!
Simon, when the working classes are large enough and starved enough that they might be a threat, capitalist powers around the world demand that the poor be put to fight against each other rather than the capitalists that oppress them. That was the real driving force of WW1 WW2 and every other big war.
We should reflect on what ‘fighting communism’ actually meant in the 50s through to the early 90s. If communism is the ideology of the proletariat rising up to seize the means of production
Do you have to work in order to pay your bills, simon?
Guess what – that makes you a part of the “working” class.
Just because you like to think of yourself as an enlightened “middle” class socialist who’s a cut above the ignorant plebs, does not make it so.
When did working class become a derogatory term? When did defending our homes from the threat of invasion become something to be ashamed of? Hitler was a socialist and wanted a european union too.
Did the film point out that Spitfire wings were so thin that they flexed during turns so the outer guns fired on different lines to the inner ones and that Fighter Command marksmanship was so abysmal into 1942 that most pilots couldn’t hit a barn door?
Thank you for saying this Craig and I fully agree with your observations.
The sad thing about this obsession with the wars is that it serves as a substitute for a more genuine cultivation of national identity and values.
Essentially it boils down to ‘we are good because we created spitfires, stood up to Hitler, and win the war’.
How much longer can this can on, when as you correctly observe, we have spent the time since WW2 indulging in continued imperialism?
Linking it with a “13 year old girl”, makes the story a lot more cuddly! (not sure that sounds right but you know what I mean).
Oh yes indeed. And let’s not forget all the movies about Dunkirk.
This surely was the nadir:
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/ve-day-dame-vera-lynn-singalong-well-meet-again-lyrics-a9496291.html
Crowds temporarily released from Covid house arrest to meet in the streets and sing We’ll meet again.
If Britain was a person it would have dementia.
“If Britain was a person it would have dementia.”
It’s witty statements like that that make you such a readable and enjoyable novelist KoWN. More please!
Thanks John!
After WW2 there was celebration and the new reality quickly morphed into the Cold War. A large part of the population in NATO countries was unaware of the amount of propaganda that was unleashed on them by their own governments during this period.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union there was celebration, NATO was the last man standing and the US was its undisputed leader. In search of a new enemy, the war on terror was a gift from heaven, people were indoctrinated with lies and propaganda on a massive scale, e.g. Iraqi WMD’s.
The new reality is the old propaganda, the Reds from Russia and China, striving for world domination. Putin is the new Stalin and Xinjiang is the new Siberia, a gulag for those who want “democracy” and “human rights”.
There is a war going on. A global information war and economic war. No one will be able to stay unaffected. The world described in Orwell’s 1984 is the amateur version. Integrity Initiative, Bellingcat, OCCRP, Transparency International, corporate media, etc. illustrate the parallel universe of (dis)information we’re living in. The project will be deemed successful when everything we believe in is a lie.
The BBC invokes the glorious past of .303 machine guns against Nazi’s. The Thompson submachine gun was called the Chicago Typewriter. The BBC is the London Typewriter, a propaganda machine that guns down the unwary. No glorious justification, merely criminal behaviour to perpetuate the Empire.
They venerate WW2 because it’s the only historical episode where they can pretend British right-wingers are the good guys.
We should be celebrating the 1945 General Election when the British voters were the good guys, electing left-wingers who brought in the Welfare State. That’s something to be proud of. But instead we have buried it under the wars and violence and English voters now prefer Nativism and Brexit to democratic socialism.
I do not think you understand democracy if you think that Brexit has anything to do with left or right wing. You can elect a socialist government after Brexit, there is nothing stopping the people doing that.
Brexit was and is about whether to be ruled by Brussels or not. Sadly, it also appears to have morphed into a choice between Washington or Brussels, a Hobsonian choice if ever there were one. I never saw it like that. If Brexit is worth doing, it is so that Britain governs itself as an independent nation, it is not trying to join the USA (what an awful thought and quite dreadful that DT and Spectator journalists ever penned articles proposing that).
The EU most certainly does not represent democratic socialism. It represents authoritarian corporatism, whatever the naive beliefs of the 1950s might have been. It is far more anti-democratic than Westminster is, and that is truly saying something.
Ruled by Brussels…it’s 2020 not 2016 when possibly people believed that nonsense
Who rules Greece, Italy, Spain and Ireland?
“Brexit was and is about whether to be ruled by Brussels or not.”
What rubbish.
Where were you during the campaign which took place in the run up to the referendum? It was abundantly obvious that the major actors had close links to far right groups in the US. You should be ashamed of yourself coming out with such nonsense.
A quick Google of Fox and the membership and funders of his ‘Atlantic Bridge’ would alert any sentient creature as to what was going on.
As for Independent Nation? We are already an occupied nation, – not just in military terms with USAF bases up and down the country role playing as RAF – but by an invasion of a trans Atlantic culture and propaganda. Ask any schoolchild who ‘the president’ and a pound to a penny you’ll be told Trump. There would be no query of ‘president of where?’. Then ask what the name of France or Germany’s president is. Good luck.
Reading the war monger Bolton’s description of his regret that the US had not done more to help the Brexit campaign was interesting. He doesn’t say what they actually did. Though we still don’t know the source(s) of the funding which came through Ulster Unionists or via Banks. Didn’t you notice that Farage got a hero’s welcome in New York? Sheesh!
Well, Rhys, you were not alone in believing that “Brexit was and is about whether to be ruled by Brussels or not”. I too fell into that trap, and thus am also deserving of the mockings and insults that have been heaped upon you by commenters on this blog.
I hadn’t anticipated that the UK was going to fall into the arms of the US (the most immoral and corrupt country in the world). I never saw the signs of it during the campaign (as others obviously did), and it is clear I should have done. I was incredibly naive. It was only when Johnson rolled over on Huawai that I knew it was over for the UK.
You had to be at death’s door to get a postal vote in 1945.
Not true. The servicemen and women, many of whom were overseas either in occupation forces or in the Far East (remember the war against Japan was still going on) got postal votes. I’ve read that it is considered that it was the Services’ vote that got Labour into power and Churchill out.
Not just the news – shows like Flog it, Antiques Road Show, even the Repair Shop (which I love) manage to mention the ‘glorious past’ all the time. I now switch off when the glorification of war is part of any programme. And my father and grandfather fought in the second and first world wars respectively…
I am so glad i don’t watch the BBC. I, too, am fed up with being shown “war porn” all the time.
It is amazing that all of the Cold War rhetoric is now being rehashed and used against China and Russia. I find I have now got to a point where I don’t believe anything I am told by the mainstream media until it has been verified with hard evidence.
Thank you Craig for this article it is nice to know I am not alone with my thoughts.
The sheer pressure on space prevents discussion on the awkward topic of whether – but for America’s eventual lend/lease response to our pleading for weapons, supplies, intervention – we would have been bound to lose that war.
In contrast to the glorification of D-Day, 4th July is notable for its restraint in the UK.
Since space is at a premium: no, we were not bound to lose that war without US help. The RAF was not destroyed as it had to be before invasion. Even if it had been then there was still the small matter of the Royal Navy. Certainly it is unlikely we would have ‘won’, but equally unlikely we would have lost.
If the Germans had not invaded USSR it might have been a different story however…
Try
Britain’s War Machine: Weapons, Resources and Experts in the Second World War (2011) by David Edgerton.
The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy (2007) by Adam Tooze
and
The Collapse of the German War Economy, 1944-1945: Allied Air Power and the German National Railway (2007) by Alfred C. Mierzejewski
Note how many times the piece on Hazel Hill is being shown.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-53352233/battle-of-britain-the-schoolgirl-who-helped-design-the-spitfire
Not forgetting the massive attention, including an OB of the procession of her hearse to her funeral, to Vera Lynn’s death at the age of 103. Even Her Maj included the words ‘We’ll meet again’. in her speech to mark the 75th anniversary of the slaughter of millions. The Butcher’s Apron has been on show throughout, even doubled on either side of the No 10 doorway from which the moral pygmies aka HMG, spoke during ‘the lockdown’. The funniest was Gavin ‘Shurrup and Go Away’ Williamson’s contribution about how we treasure our children, ie bring them up to join the military.
Orwell lives.
My observation, as someone who has worked in the TV industry for many years and now experiences daytime television as I care for an elderly and sick parent, is that most worrying is the constant drip of ‘war porn’ on many programmes. Favourites such as Bargain Hunt, Antiques Roadshow and Flog It will always favour antiques that have a war attachment or host many shows from prominent cultural venues that have the same attachment.
Often viewed as singularly harmless, the compound effect becomes a prominent daily reminder for audiences of our war victories (note: I say ‘our’ deliberately, when infact, many other countries made much greater sacrifices than us but it’s important to national confidence)
More broadly, look at any days BBC TV scheduling between 9am and 5pm and the majority of programmes fit into just two categories, making money or profit and nostalgic history;
The Antiques programmes – Flog It, Bargain Hunt, Antiques Roadshow etc – empire, history and making profit.
Homes Under the Hammer – making profit
Pointless – a quiz show in which contestants try to make money
Escape to the Country – often nostalgic history, people leaving the city looking for a bucolic lifestyle.
Think about others – The Repair Shop, Len Goodman Holiday of a Lifetime, Mary Berry Cookery Programmes etc and ask yourselves, what are the objectives of this programme at a fundamental level ? What do I see and hear and how is that meant to make me feel ?
As Craig mentions, so much public money and TV airtime is given to excessive commemoration that you have to ask why ? Well, in my opinion and it seems obvious, you only have to look at the last 20 years of British history to see why this is happening – illegal wars, racism, a disastrous economic collapse and a Scottish independence movement that although lost the 2014 referendum shows no sign of losing it’s grip on the Scottish public. Chagos Islands, Julian Assange, Privacy Issues, a fraudulent finance industry and a technology that it really struggles to control but desperately wants to – the internet.
Through all of these issues, the Litmus Test for me is who now walks past the Cenotaph in November. Most of those that served have now long gone, and military presence is now made up of those who served in Iraq, Afghanistan etc and I think it’s fair to say the public have a very different view on those wars of aggression. There seems little doubt that the British political state is under pressure. You may think it daft to use this event as a barometer of ‘national public awareness’ but think about what has media manipulation has taken place recently which only goes to highlight the importance of the event.
Last year the media (BBC) had to doctor images of Boris Johnson because he had placed the wreath upside down by using footage from a previous year and a few years ago the press (Mail, Sun) cropped images of Jeremy Corbyn to make it look like he was ‘dancing’ when he was actually walking along and gesturing while talking to an army veteran.
Thats why we now start wearing poppies in the third week of October, why they have almost become mandatory to wear on the BBC. Thats why war or battle commemorations are now held yearly and have huge expense and effort devoted to them.
Most importantly, people should remember that it is part of the BBC Charter that it should defend and promote ‘Britain’, or that warped, nostalgic idea of Britain – fairness, honesty, integrity, The Royal Family, Empire, Victoria etc etc.
I was never surprised that we voted to leave the EU, never surprised that Johnson won a stonking majority and not surprised that yesterday a poll revealed that Labour trail the Tories by 10 points despite the disaster of Covid 19 killing tens of thousands. Nor am I surprised that the elderly vote Tory.
However, mention that i think BBC Antiques Programmes are nothing more than a subversive attempt at soft mind control and most people will call me nuts.
Hey ho. Sorry for the long post
Thank you for pointing out that the BBC mind-control is pervasive, that it infects even the most inconsequential output. The comedy is one to watch too, or rather to avoid at all costs, because it is laced with poison. I don’t think you’re nuts at all.
Yes great comment. The comedy is laced with poison and I find it very disturbing. The BBC should not be receiving involuntary funding from peaceful citizens.
You can opt out of paying your TV license here: https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/cs/no-licence-needed/about.app
You have to give them your real-world address. If you don’t want to give them your email address then use [email protected]
In order to follow the law you can’t watch or record terrestrial TV, watch any TV program on the internet “live” (while it is also being broadcast on TV), or use BBC iPlayer. It’s a win-win.
You can still watch anything you like on netflix, youtube or whatever, though avoid live streams that may also be shown on TV, just to be sure. You can always watch them later when they’re not live. You can still own a TV set, I use mine as a computer monitor. You can still watch DVDs.
A bit unfair on Pointless I feel: they only ever win a few grand these days. Not exactly lifechanging amounts. It’s a bit of fun.
Game shows are used to signpost people towards what they should perceive as desirable. They also indicate what knowledge is valued, lots of stuff about sport, entertainment and brands. At last century you could win a holiday or a boat or a food mixer, more recently it’s about winning money, currency for currency’s sake. There’s more that could be said about them, I don’t think they’re harmless, or fun at all.
The TV that seems innocuous is the most dangerous kind, because you’re not aware of it’s payload, it’s bypassing your filters.
I agree with your thesis that BBC daytime television is orientated towards soft capitalism (as you say flogging antiques, renovating decrepit housing stock). This coverage is clearly directed at the main demographic at home during the day. So what some might say? I can hear those calling you out as nuts because your critique the Antiques Roadshow. I’ve have similar experiences with regard to other TV shows. Consider, for example, the old Adam West ‘Batman’ series. Seemingly just harmless slapstick comedy, note that all the stupid policeman appear to be Irish Americans. Deliberate? Possibly.
My point is that all television is such a pernicious, indoctrinating influence that its propaganda works in all directions, left and right. You’ve noticed the irritating nostalgic trends; those on the right note the endless promotion of purportedly progressive social agendas undesired by a very significant proportion of society. Both in fact are often correct.
As a child and young teenager I often thought that BBC’s Sunday evening programming (which my parents loved) so f***ing boring – Antiques Roadshow, Last of the Summer Wine, Howards Way, Bread, Thats Life (I could go on) that it must be deliberate so as to make people go to bed early to be ready for work or school the next day. I haven’t changed my mind 35 years later.
Craig – when you are facing as grim and uncertain a future as those in power in England know they are facing, more-so once they lose Scotland, their last colony- well your “glorious past” is all you have left, to use as bread and circuses and keep the lower orders in their place and onside.
Dulce et Decorum Est
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/item/3303
Does Craiglockhart Hospital nr Edinburgh still exist? Wilfrid Owen was sent there in 1917 with neurasthenia (shell shock)..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulce_et_Decorum_est#Composition
It does still exist Mary, it’s now part of Napier University. New buildings have been added to the site (I think they house the Business School of the University) but the old building still remains. As a child I attended the neighbouring school and walked past this building everyday.
And Siegfried Sassoon.
I recommend Regeneration by Pat Barker for an emotional fictional account.
https://www.waterstones.com/book/regeneration/pat-barker/9780141030937
Walton rather than Elgar I think. Certainly on the trailer.
For those that miss it there’s a whole three hours of the BoB this Sunday evening on 5 Select with two of British TV’s worst presenters to increase the agony. There’s always Othello on BBC 4 though, the first RSC production with a real black actor.
I assume “other examples of gratuitous official militarism”. Isn’t limited to the UK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSmuAofFpSM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1v4AXfoOac
The BBC Charter was after all altered under Cameron and Clegg to “promote Britishness”.
I offer no opinion as to how effective this heavy handed propaganda works in England, but I do wonder as to its impact in Scotland.
The Beeb (and the rest of the MSM) go full North Korean, nuts every time something big happens regarding the royal parasites. I’m unaware of any direct polling on the popularity of the royals in Scotland immediately before and after one of these exercises in media induced mass hysteria (in England), but the overall trend in polling is not good for the royals and all the vibes I pick up on after one of these nauseating feasts of obsequiousness indicate that the immediate impact of the propaganda is negative.
We will of course be given opportunities to examine this phenomenon, as let’s face it, Phil the Greek and Brenda are going to be headline news sooner rather than later.
Pip pip.
“I am going to keep this page permanently open for comments, and hopefully bookmarked on the right hand side, so you can record future examples of BBC WW2 Porn as they occur, or indeed other examples of gratuitous official militarism.”
You’re going to need a bigger server.
Victors always glorify war because it tells their side of the story, and we all want to believe we were the goodies and all the rest were baddies, neatly forgetting what caused the war in the first place. That is not to say that we were wrong to stand up to Nazism but that the rise of fascism was precisely the same then as it is today, capitalists created the climate that fostered hatred and division, they were the ones that got rich out of the war, and it’s happening again today – with the vilification of China, Russia, and Iran.
Britain and the USA are in decline, so the first thing the establishment needs is a scapegoat to hide their failings, and creating enemies provides people with the perfect excuse. Tribalism is powerful tool in the establishment’s armoury, and they always use it when their support is flagging as we saw with Thatcher and the Falklands war.
Fascism is rising everywhere, the old excuses are being peddled by the likes of Farage who attack immigrants and claim that all crimes are committed by Muslims, we see Johnson openly attacking black people and claiming they have no right to be here such as the Windrush scandal. These are all the ingredients for division in society – the violence we see against Europeans and people demanding that they speak English is all part of the same symptoms – fear of being over-run by foreigners, when in fact it’s due to the super rich fostering policies of poverty that enrich them at the expense of everyone else.
Taxation has also been used to impoverish people, which they themselves overlook, the rich claim that public finances can only be accommodated through taxes raised, yet have over the last 50 years demanded tax reductions, and people blindly accepted it without question because they think rich people are more important to them than government itself – which issues all the money into existence so that they, the rich and poor can earn it. So rather than attack the people that are impoverishing them, they fight against other victims like themselves, so the saga goes on, until we all wake up.
All crimes are most certainly not committed by Muslims, but it is impossible on the BBC and similar woke channels to make blacks, muslims, Jews, gays, women and other minorities accept that equality means equality of responsibility and accountability, not just equality of opportunity.
I despise the left for failing to enunciate this crisply, repeatedly, authoritatively and without worrying about arseholes crying foul afterwards.
Woke channels. Lol
women are a minority???
Mervyn Hyde just to be clear, taxes in the UK (and other sovereign monetary jurisdictions) do not fund government spending. The BoE expands its balance sheets when government spends. There are no formal accounting linkages between tax and spend. Only conventions. (See MMT Modern Monetary Theory). So yes this is the lie, that taxes or revenue are needed before government can spend, which has been used to to impoverish people. In particular the austerity lie.
The thing is Natasha, that you rich cannot become richer, the most exclusive cars and consumer product will always be priced for their pockets. So if you can’t make the rich richer what can you do? Ah yes – make the poor poorer and you do that…with fiscal, or I should say monetary policy.
Keynes knew this and he could see that impoverished people were dangerous people, and the more people that became impoverished the more dangerous to the established order they’d become. After WW2 men came home trained as killers. They were very dangerous, so a strategy was decided upon where enough wealth would be shared that they would become distracted and comfortable enough to become a non-threat. But by the early 60s a lot of the old monied rich had had enough of bloody poor people not being so poor(even though they were) so a movement was created to end Keynesian economics and return to the old ways.
Totally agree. The only reason we got crumbs from the table was that the establishment was worried about revolution. Fast forward to 2020, we no longer have a potential revolutionary army and the gloves are back off. 2000+ foodbanks and Raab on record as saying we should bring back workhouses.
Craig,
I completely agree with your post; meanwhile our war veterans especially the ones from recent conflicts have to be supported by charities to provide them with heath care which should be provided by the state.
It is disgraceful.
Kind of obvious why they continually do it though. Its the one ‘good’ war.They cannot point to any other war and talk about it being right, the way they do with this one. Even during other wars, the propaganda machine always focuses on that one, hoping to convince thick people they are the same. It’s no coincidence that during Iraq, the big blockbuster hit of the time was Saving Private Ryan – one of the most racist films around, by one of the most racist directors around.
It’s only considered a good war because of the Nazis treatment of the Jews
The blood has never dried, quite literally.
Prince Charles was supposed to visiting Srebrenica but Covid-19 has intervened.
https://www.srebrenica.org.uk/information/hrh-prince-of-wales-visit-to-srebrenica/
Then what did the UK and the NATO coalition do? Send down the bombs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Deliberate_Force
On the English TV Vera Lynn won the second world war. The Americans have Wonder Woman and Supergirl the English have Vera who blasted the Nazis with her super powered voice.
I’m continually struck by how much current politics exemplifies the victory of symbolism over reality. What people say is foregrounded over what they do. Statues are pulled down, but the systems they represented continue, barely noticed, in other forms. The glorification of past events is used to camouflage the much less glorious present. Unfounded smears of antisemitism are used to conceal current realities of racial oppression. Publicising war crimes results in the whistleblower being threatened with life in jail, while the perpetrators are treated as celebrities. The course of politics is changed by the false portrayal of the leader of the opposition. I could go on . . .
Have we completely lost touch with reality? Discuss . . .